Ethnographies of Internet practices
Cuts from the Press
Ressources
RCCS
http://www.com.washington.edu/rccs/default.asp∞
The Resource Center for Cyberculture Studies is an online, not-for-profit organization whose purpose is to research, teach, support, and create diverse and dynamic elements of cyberculture.
Pew Internet
http://www.pewinternet.org/index.asp∞
The Pew Internet & American Life Project produces reports (available online) that explore the impact of the Internet on families, communities, work and home, daily life, education, health care, and civic and political life. The Project aims to be an authoritative source on the evolution of the Internet through collection of data and analysis of real-world developments as they affect the virtual world. The company claims to have expertise in numerous fields, from teens practices of the Web to news events on the Web. The basis of the reports are nationwide random digit dial telephone surveys as well as online surveys. This data collection is supplemented with research from government agencies, academia, and other expert venues; observations of what people do and how they behave when they are online; in-depth interviews with Internet users and Internet experts alike; and other efforts that try to examine individual and group behavior. The Project releases 15-20 pieces of research a year, varying in size, scope, and ambition.
Media Anthropology Network
http://www.philbu.net/media-anthropology/index.htm∞
The Network aims to foster the exchange of information and coordinate research and teaching projects on the anthropological study of media; Among the media is the Web.
Bibliographies
Book reviews section of the RCCS: A rich continuously updated bibliography with reviews
http://www.com.washington.edu/rccs/booklist.asp∞
‘Cyberculture: An Annotated Bibliography’ is a useful document written by David Silver. Unfortunately, it has not been updated since 1998, while the field is growing quickly.
http://www.otal.umd.edu/~rccs/biblio.html∞ (
here is a mirror on the Webepistemology site: SilverBiblio.)
Media Anthropology Network – Bibliography: a rich bibliography that covers all media. References dealing specifically with the Web need to be selected.
http://www.philbu.net/media-anthropology/bibliography.htm∞
Thematic bibliography
Themes:
1. Internet communities-Identity and communities in the Web
2. Gender in the internet:
3. Queer/isolated communities in the internet
4. Politics and the Web
5. Using the internet in different areas of the world
1. Internet communities-Identity and communities in the Web
Bräuchler, B. 2005.
Cyberidentities at War: Der Molukkenkonflikt im Internet. Bielefeld: transcript.
Conflicting parties worldwide increasingly use the internet in a strategic way. By extending into cyberspace, local conflicts acquire a new global dimension. Based on ethnographic research on the online activities of Christian and Muslim actors in the Moluccan conflict (1999-2002) this study investigates processes of identity construction and community building on the internet. The author thus makes an innovative contribution to conflict and internet research and methodologically paves the way for a new cyber anthropology. (Birgit Braeuchler, Munich; abstracted from
Media Anthropology Network – Bibliography∞)
Online chapter:
http://www.transcript-verlag.de/ts287/ts287.htm∞
Online review by Nils Zurawski, Hamburg:
http://www.kommunikation-gesellschaft.de/∞
Scollon, R. and S. Wong Scollon. 2004.
Nexus analysis. Discourse and the emerging Internet. London and New York: Routledge.
An anthropology inspired analysis of the early stages of the internet use in university teaching and other contexts in Alaska. The authors offer a personal account of the multiple shifts in discourse practices caused by the introduction of the new medium of communication. (Anna Horolets, Warsaw; abstracted from
Media Anthropology Network – Bibliography∞)
Howard, Philip N. and Steve Jones (eds). 2004.
Society Online: The Internet in Context Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
Society Online: The Internet in Context, edited by Philip N. Howard and Steve Jones, is a comprehensive volume that examines many uses of the new media and the impact of new technologies on daily life. As Howard's introduction states, the book takes an embedded media perspective as its analytical framework, focusing on "how new communication tools are embedded in our lives and how our lives are embedded in new media" as the internet mediates our interaction with the people and the world around us (2). Written by leading social scientists, most chapters of the book utilize data from the Pew Internet and American Life Project as well as other surveys and telephone interviews. Research methods such as ethnography, participant observation, and content analysis also prove useful in several studies. (Mei Zhang; abstracted from
Media Anthropology Network – Bibliography∞)
Barnes, Susan B. 2001.
Online Connections: Internet Interpersonal RelationshipsCresskill, New Jersey: Hampton Press, Inc,
In Online Connections: Internet Interpersonal Relationships, Susan B. Barnes has crafted a well-researched, interesting, and informative piece of work based around the Internet and the relationships that accompany its evolution. The book has a fluidic framework and is useful to an advanced theorist in cybercultural and feminist studies and the novice alike. The aim of the text is to introduce us to the inter-personal relationships that formulate through online chatting and group dynamics and the negativity and positivity of the support networks that accompany it. (Andrew Dalton; abstracted from
Media Anthropology Network – Bibliography∞)
Cherny, L. 1999.
Conversation and Community: Chat in a Virtual World Stanford, CA: CSLI Publications,
For many of us, the Internet has become a networking tool without equal. Within minutes (or even less) one can establish contact with like-minded individuals and discuss interesting (and non-interesting) topics. One can write letters, coordinate activities, plan future events, and then publicize all of these activities among comrades in a common space. It is exactly this near ubiquity and effectiveness of the Internet as a means of communication that makes it such a powerful tool in the lives of ever increasing numbers of people (Pew 1995, 2000). However, like all tools, the purpose of a tool and the usefulness of a tool are very different qualities. Simply using a tool -- any tool for that matter -- does not mean that humanity will benefit progressively. Communicative tools must conform to human interests and needs. And the need to belong to primary groups that give one's life meaning is among the most important of social needs. We all require social contact. Prisoners forced to remain in solitary confinement for long periods of time will shatter their personalities to create "people" with whom they can communicate while so imprisoned. Human beings require contact. Building a stable community assures that contact, of some kind, will occur. Communication is necessary for community but what is it that makes a human community such a unique entity? The debate on what makes and perpetuates a community is a vast literature in sociology and anthropology among other fields. One common element to all communities is mutually understood communication. (Art Jipson; abstracted from
Media Anthropology Network – Bibliography∞)
Porter, David (ed.) 1996.
Internet Culture New York: Routledge,
Like the contributors to Virtual Culture: Identity and Communication in Cybersociety and Cyberspace: First Steps, the scholars assembled for Internet Culture are well aware of the breadth and diversity of their topic [1]. This awareness both shows and works -- Internet Culture is perhaps the most diverse anthology on cyberculture to date. Although the collection's overall cohesion suffers from such breadth, the anthology proves successful in generating a healthy plate of ideas. (David Silver; abstracted from
Media Anthropology Network – Bibliography∞)
Barney, Darin 2004.
The Network Society Cambridge, UK: Polity Press.
As the internet becomes more and more a part of daily life for most North Americans, academic researchers have begun to focus closely on people’s specific interactions with network technology. This approach has been fruitful, but has often meant that cyberculture studies fail to consider the wider implications of these technologies. Darin Barney, an assistant professor of communication at
McGill University, takes this wider view in his book The Network Society. Commissioned as part of the "Key Concepts" series of social science texts, this work introduces and discusses the articulation of the "network society." Barney questions to what extent this articulation is useful as a description of the character of our age, and further, whether it provides any critical reflection on contemporary experience. (Alison Powell; abstracted from
Media Anthropology Network – Bibliography∞)
Robins, Kevin and Frank Webster 1999.
Times of the Technoculture. From the Information Society to the Virtual Life New York: Routledge,
Kevin Robins and Frank Webster's Times of the Technoculture touts itself as the antidote to Bill Gates' celebration of new technologies, The Road Ahead. Of course, as a book in David Morley's Comedia series and shelved under Media Studies/Cultural Studies, one may not be too surprised to find a critique of Gates. However, as Robins and Webster imply, many other authors also shelved under Media Studies/Cultural Studies (or the maligned "Cyberculture Studies") also typify Gates' celebration of technology and the narrative of technology-as-progress (a short list of such promoters of the "cyberculture agenda" include Pierre Levy, Manuel Castells, William Mitchell, Nicholas Negroponte, Michel Serres, and Alvin Toffler, in no particular order). Offered as a "pessimistic" and "jaundiced" corrective to the "simplistic technoculture," Robins and Webster attempt to dislodge the widespread belief in the emancipatory possibilities of cyberspace and virtual reality. (Heidi Brush; abstracted from
Media Anthropology Network – Bibliography∞)
Hine, Christine 2000.
Virtual Ethnography London: Sage
Many individuals have engaged in the foretelling of strange, wonderful, and potentially scary new futures based on technological innovation. Nicholas Negroponte's 1995 Being Digital and Bill Gates' 1996 The Road Ahead may well spring immediately to mind as two of the more recent of the "futurology" genre. Perhaps curiously, though, our potential technological revolution has yet to be fully realized. Humans are habit bound -- if something looks and behaves like a telephone we decide it must be a telephone, and use it accordingly. In her lucid and pragmatic text, Virtual Ethnography, Christine Hine, Director of the Centre for Research into Innovation, Culture and Technology (CRICT), offers insight into the development and execution of micro-level ethnographic analyses of current Internet practices that scrutinize the understandings users have of what the Internet is for. (Julie Mactaggart; abstracted from
Media Anthropology Network – Bibliography∞)
5. Using the internet in different areas of the world
Dao-Yuan, Hu 2000.
Internet in China - past, present and future Neue Medien und Öffentlichkeiten. - Hamburg : Dt. Übersee-Inst., pp. 297-303
Joseph, Richard 2000
Evaluating the rhetoric and the reality : the internet in Australia Neue Medien und Öffentlichkeiten. - Hamburg : Dt. Übersee-Inst., pp. 321-337
Dufau-Rossi, Hélène 2000.
Internet policies in West and Central Africa : betting on an uncertain future?
Neue Medien und Öffentlichkeiten. - Hamburg : Dt. Übersee-Inst., pp. 376-406
Ekwulugo, Frances 2002.
Internet marketing in Africa : problems and prospects Dynamics of marketing in African nations. - Westport, Conn. [u.a.] : Quorum Books, pp. 65-78
Vigar, Debbie 2002.
The impact of the internet, as a marketing medium, on traditional mass media in South Africa Dynamics of marketing in African nations. - Westport, Conn. [u.a.] : Quorum Books, pp. 79-94
Tsaliki, Liza 2003.
Globalisation and hybridity : the construction of Greekness on the internet The media of diaspora. - London [u.a.] : Routledge, pp. 162-176
Grieco, Margaret 2004.
Kente connections : the role of the internet in developing an economic base for Ghana Souvenirs : the material culture of tourism. - Aldershot, Hants, England : Ashgate, pp. 246-252
Miller, Daniel and Don Slater 2001.
The Internet: An Ethnographic Approach Oxford, UK: Berg Publishers,
Daniel Miller and Don Slater's The Internet: An Ethnographic Approach is home to many counter-assumptions spread by earlier literature on cyberspace as virtuality. It transcends many dualisms -- real/virtual, global/local, subject/object -- and seeks to go beyond an analysis of the homogenization of culture through globalization forces. The authors take into account cultural subtleties, metaphors, and idioms that allow actors to understand and use the technologies in a way that is particular to Trinidadian culture. They take on Latour's (1991,1993) work on mediation, showing how science and society are dissolved into each other. Internet uses in Trinidad are hybrids that cannot be reduced to either its human or its material agents. The authors contend that this book is not a case study of localization or the appropriation of a global form by local cultural concerns. It is not about domesticating a technology. On the contrary, it is largely about how Trinidadians put themselves into this global arena and become part of the force that constitutes it, but do so quite specifically as Trinidadians. (Maria Rosales-Sequeiros, abstracted from
Media Anthropology Network – Bibliography∞)
Gottlieb, Nanette and Mark
McLelland (Eds) 2003.
Japanese Cybercultures London, UK: Routledge.
What is your image of Japan? A technologically hip nation of cyber-savvy samurai? A land where culture can be both cute and conformist? In Japanese Cybercultures, editors Nanette Gottlieb and Mark
McLelland challenge our perceptions of Japan and the Internet through a range of fascinating perspectives. Adding to a growing body of ethnographic studies focusing on Internet use in different countries, the three thematic sections of the book -- popular culture; gender and sexuality; and politics and religion -- demonstrate how the use of the Internet is both entrenched in and changing various perspectives of daily life in Japan. (Leslie M. Tkach-Kawasaki, abstracted from
Media Anthropology Network – Bibliography∞)